A Dream?
by Raven Whisperer
Summary: People dream strange things all the time, but when you're leaving your body, is it really a dream? Behind closed doors strange things happen, and strange one shall see once unconsciousness takes them. Was it fate why he saw this? Or perhaps this was insight on something more. Takes place after Pein/Pain Arc before Itachi's death. Some ItaSaku. Story is about Sasuke!


**Begin: One-shot**

Sleep lulled him away into what was supposed to be a dream, but he'd missed the peak of his imagination and he shot somewhere else. He could walk, but he wasn't there. He could speak, but no one could hear him. He could move and jump and dance, yet no one saw. He could see everything, yet he could not touch it. In the back of his mind he told himself he was dreaming of solitude as we walked through Team Hebi's hideout hallways. There was no way he could be here without actually being _here_. He wandered some more but couldn't do anything and something told him not to go back to bed.

A breeze swept through the house then from the window Suigetsu had left open after he'd complained he'd evaporate from the heat. To anyone there is would have felt slightly bone chilling but overall unaffecting, but for Sasuke in his current state, the breeze felt like a harsh wind that swept him out of the hideout. It was useless to resist such a strong wind, so he enjoyed the ride for the meantime. He'd flown before with the wings of the second stage curse mark, but never as gracefully as this wind carried him. After his fight with Deidara, he could no longer fly without his missing wing (hand?) and had been grounded since, he never knew he could miss flying this much.

When the breeze came to a faded stop, Sasuke checked his surroundings. He felt the urge to let his jaw drop when he saw the sight before him.

It was a shock in general to _be here_ in Konoha, but the village was in shambles! Buildings were nothing but rubble and few ninja could properly clean the debris with so many villagers begging for assistance and demanding a search for their loved ones or valuables. There could be nothing done for them however, seeing as every ninja he could see was clearing debris or healing villagers.

A sense of panic shot through him suddenly. What if the Uchiha estate looked just like the village? There could be nothing he could do, but if his home was destroyed then he'd take vengeance on the menace who had done this. Sasuke hurried over mounds of rumble even though he knew it was unnecessary when he could just walk through it. But he continued anyways until the large gate that welcomed all to the Uchiha grounds appeared. He slowed a bit and inspected his home carefully.

It seemed as if only one small house had had any kind of damage done to it. Large piles of debris and rubble had landed on top of that house but the roof had held strong and house was left intact. The problem now was that no one dared step foot on the Uchiha estate except Uchiha themselves or brave and foolish…What was that noise? Sasuke looked around but could not identify the wailing. It sounded as if someone was crying, but who would be here in the dead of night? The estate was rumored haunted and barely any even came within fifteen feet of this place.

Sasuke wandered farther into the place that had kept him warm when he was little and gave him such happy memories that now clawed at his heart. He pushed away those memories. He didn't want to think about those times. The memories were painful and would only further cloud his mind, so he redirected his attention to the crying.

He walked on the dirt street with only silence and the foreboding crying, and he felt something familiar from those shrieks of unhappiness. He felt as if he'd heard them before not all that long ago, perhaps a few years back…a memory of the night he had left attacked his mind and guilt flooded through his veins.

Then he saw her. The reason for the crying. A ghost from his past shedding tears as if mourning a dead person, clutching a picture frame to her chest. "Why…" she whispered between strained breaths. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know who she was crying over, and if he could he would have sat down next to her and maybe that would have cheered her up.

"It's late for a young lady such as yourself to be out." An all too familiar voice rang out from before them. From the shadows, Itachi emerged his long Akatsuki robe flittering about him from the sudden wind that only seemed to touch the two of them. Sakura's hair wildly spun around her heart shaped face and her face contorted in shock. Just from looking at her you could tell fear was rippling through her body at high speed all because of the one man before hers. Sasuke was experiencing a similar sensation of hatred and love and pain for his older brother. "I wasn't expecting anyone else to be here." He admitted softly sitting down next to her but keeping about a foot of space between them. "Why are you here, may I ask?"

Sakura was silent for a few minutes and Sasuke was sure she wasn't going to answer his question. "I miss him." She said quietly, refusing to meet the elder Uchiha's eyes and instead stared straight forward, protecting the picture by holding as tightly as she could to her. "Sometimes, when I'm out here I feel closer to him and his life from before…and other times I pray he'd just come home." Tears still cascaded down from her eyes, but no longer was she wailing with sorrow. "And may I ask why you're here?"

Itachi smiled and stared straight ahead at whatever Sakura had fixated her eyes on, "I come here sometimes asking my family for forgiveness from the sins I've done. And sometimes I hope Sasuke would hear those prayers and maybe one day forgive me. But I know it is my place to die by his hand." Silence responded to his sentence. His words were heavy and carried an foreseen weight that seemed all too logical. "What I've done is unforgivable, and yet I seek forgiveness." He smiled again to himself, but this smile radiated sorrow and unhappiness. A smile that remembered before and couldn't bare after.

Silence engulfed them both, and Sasuke watched from wherever he was. Never had he heard such a confession from his brother's lips and once more guilt overcame but he smashed his feelings down. _He knows I'm here_, he convinced himself, _he's trying to make me feel bad, to show him mercy_. He would not, he had vowed vengeance for his clan and he refused something as futile as his brother's pathetic attempts of asking for mercy would stop him. He would have his revenge.

"You're right." Sakura replied quietly, whipping her tears away and staring at her toes that pocked out from her sandals, "What you did is unforgivable." Neither of them said anything to add to her statement.

On the inside, Sasuke felt a little proud of his ex-comrade. Perhaps she was finally understanding his need for vengeances and then maybe she could dumb it down for that idiot Naruto so he would understand and stop pursuing him. Well if he was lucky anyways, but nothing ever seemed to go his way.

Finally, after a few minutes of silence he spoke, "May I see that picture?"

She looked down at the frame that showed from between her arms. "Why?" she asked. "I doubt you'd have much interest in it."

"I'm always interested in knowing what my little brother is doing." He smiled at her. Hesitantly, she relinquished her hold on the picture and handed it to him. He accepted it and held it as if it were glass in his hands. Gently, he stroked the small sliver of glass that held the image in the frame over his younger brother's face, "He won't even smile for a picture." He chuckled under his breath studying the image. That happiness reflected in his eyes for a mere moment before vanishing as he studied the rest of the picture, "You must have been so sad when he left."

She looked down at her hands that were now in her lap, "Yeah." They sat in silence again.

After a few moments Itachi stood and set the picture down where he'd been sitting. "Please, don't report me to your hokage or tell anyone I was here." He began to walk away but stopped and turned to give her half a smile, "I'm trusting you, Sakura."

"H-how do you know my name?!" Sakura shouted in surprise. He knew her name? That was a shock to both Sakura _and_ Sasuke.

"The same way you know mine." He replied and took another step forward.

"_I'm _not as S-class criminal!" Sakura retorted, slightly offended.

"I meant my little brother, did you honestly think I wouldn't check up on him from time to time?" and with that he was gone, faded into the night leaving nothing but the ghost of his words.

Another breeze picked up then, disturbing Sakura's hair and forcing Sasuke back to where his body lay. He let the breeze imitate the flying he had missed until it faded when he reached his destination.

**End: One-shot**


End file.
